YOUR GUIDE TO EU ELECTIONS PB 1 How do the European elections work? Owing to the failure of the UK and the EU to reach a Brexit deal, the UK has been granted an extension to the Article 50 process for leaving the EU until 31 October 2019. This means, as David Lidington confirmed on 7 May, that because no agreement has yet been reached, European elections will be held on 23 May 2019. Vuelio’s Guide explains how these will work. Where will MEPs be elected? The UK is divided into twelve European parliamentary constituencies, each of which elects a certain number of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). These are as follows: y East Midlands – 5 MEPs y East of England – 7 MEPs y London – 8 MEPs y North East – 3 MEPs y North West – 8 MEPs y Northern Ireland – 3 MEPs y Scotland – 6 MEPs y South East – 10 MEPs y South West – 6 MEPs (this region includes Gibraltar) y Wales – 4 MEPs y West Midlands – 7 MEPs y Yorkshire & the Humber – 6 MEPs How are MEPs elected? All UK citizens, as well as Commonwealth citizens living in the UK, are entitled to vote. EU citizens living in the UK can choose between voting here or in the country they are a citizen of. All but one constituency is elected using the ‘D’Hondt’ method, a type of proportional representation. Each party puts forward a list of candidates ranked with their preferred candidate at the top and the remaining candidates in descending order. Therefore, electors can only vote for the party and not for individual candidates. The first seat to be allocated in the region goes to the top candidate of the party with the most votes. Then, the first party’s vote share is halved, and the party which now has the most votes gets the second seat. This process continues, with the share of the top party in each round being divided by one plus the number of MEPs they’ve had elected in the constituency so far in the process, until all the seats are allocated. It is therefore very unlikely that the candidates at the bottom of any party’s list will be elected; however, they may become MEPs should the candidates elected later resign and a replacement be needed. Northern Ireland uses a different electoral system – the Single Transferrable Vote (STV). Under this system, voters rank the candidates in order of preference. A quota of votes is then calculated, based on the number of seats (three) and the number of votes cast. Candidates over that threshold are elected immediately, with their surplus votes transferred to other candidates (based on the rankings). Further candidates are then deemed to be elected if they now meet the quota. If not, the lowest-ranked candidates are eliminated and their votes reallocated, with this process continuing until all three seats have been filled. 2 How many MEPs were elected for each party in 2014? Constituency UKIP Labour Conservative Green SNP Lib Plaid Dems Cymru East Midlands 2 1 2 East of 3 1 3 England London 1 4 2 1 North East 1 2 North West 3 3 2 Scotland 1 2 1 2 South East 4 1 3 1 1 South West 2 1 2 1 Wales 1 1 1 1 West 3 2 2 Midlands Yorkshire & 3 2 1 the Humber Total 24 20 19 3 2 1 1 Sinn Féin DUP UUP Northern 1 1 1 Ireland How many MEPs does each party have now? Since 2014, there have been a number of changes in MEP numbers, primarily affecting UKIP and the Conservatives. The current totals are as follows: Party Number of MEPs Conservative 18 Labour 18* The Brexit Party 14 Independent 6 UKIP 3 Green Party 3 Change UK 1 Scottish National Party 2 Democratic Unionist Party 1 Liberal Democrats 1 Plaid Cymru 1 Sinn Féin 1 Social Democratic Party 1 Ulster Unionist Party 1 * One Labour MEP stepped down in January 2019 and another stepped down in April 2019; neither has been replaced. 2 3 What are the European Parliament groupings? National parties form part of pan-European groupings in the European Parliament. UK parties belong to the following European groupings, listed with their total number of MEPs from across the bloc. Conservative & UKIP MEPs are split across different groupings, with the Conservatives officially a member of the Conservatives & Reformists and UKIP officially a member of the Europe of Nations & Freedom group. Group Number of MEPs UK Members European People’s Party 217 1 Change UK and 1 independent MEP* Progressive Alliance of Socialists 186 Labour Party (& Social Democratic & & Democrats Labour Party) Conservatives & Reformists 76 Conservative Party & Ulster Unionist Party Alliance of Liberals & Democrats 68 Liberal Democrats (& Alliance Party of for Europe Northern Ireland) European United Left – Nordic 52 Sinn Féin Green Left Greens/European Free Alliance 52 Green Party, Plaid Cymru & Scottish National Party Europe of Freedom & Direct 41 The Brexit Party, Social Democratic Party Democracy & 3 independent MEPs Europe of Nations & Freedom 37 2 UKIP & 1 independent MEPs Non-attached 21 Democratic Unionist Party, 1 UKIP & 1 independent MEPs *Change UK have not said which European Parliament group they would sit in if elected. 4 How does Brexit affect this? Could the elections be cancelled? Despite the fact that the Conservative Party has been sending out leaflets calling on voters to lobby their MPs to back the Brexit deal, annoying Brexiteers in the process, it’s almost certainly too late to cancel the elections. The decision to offer the UK an extension to the Brexit process says that if the UK fails to hold elections, the extension will come to an end on 31 May 2019. Any deal would need to be ratified by the UK Parliament, the European Parliament and the European Council. The European Parliament sat for the last time before the elections on 18 April, and so effectively there is no way that the UK could complete all the steps required to leave the EU with a deal and avoid having to hold the elections. Indeed, Cabinet Office Minister David Lidingtonadmitted this on 7 May, saying it was ‘not going to be possible to finish that process’ in time. Under the terms of the decision, the UK will leave the EU on the first day of the month following ratification; otherwise the UK will leave on 31 October (barring a further extension). What about the new parties? Two high-profile new parties are likely to be contesting these elections, one pro-Brexit and one pro- second referendum. On 12 April, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage launched The Brexit Party. The party, which has been registered with the Electoral Commission since 5 February, was led by Catherine Blaiklock, UKIP’s former economics spokesman, until 20 March when she resigned following the discovery of Islamophobic tweets she had made. Launching the party, Farage said: ‘What we have seen over the course of the last four weeks is the betrayal, the wilful betrayal of the greatest democratic exercise of this nation’ and that the party was ‘not here just to fight the European elections’ but aimed to ‘change politics for good’, achieving a ‘democratic revolution’. He unveiled five candidates, including former Conservative parliamentary candidate Annunziata Rees-Mogg, the sister of Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg. The party currently has 14 MEPs including Farage, all of whom defected from UKIP. Change UK will contest the elections and is the party formed by The Independent Group of MPs who defected from Labour and the Conservatives in February 2019. However, it only announced its intention to register as a political party on 29 March, and the Electoral Commission advises that the process of registering usually takes around six weeks. Nevertheless, its registration was accepted on 15 April, although the proposed emblem was rejected. Interim party leader Heidi Allen has said the party is not making policy on EU matters ‘at this stage’ and will be agreeing ‘no deals and no pacts’ with other parties. It is unclear which European Parliament grouping Change UK would want to belong to, should it have any MEPs elected. According to The Times, more than 3,000 people have applied to stand for the party, with the MPs choosing the final candidates from a shortlist of 100. Renew, a small pro-EU political party, has also announced its decision to ‘wind up operations’ and support the party at the elections. 4 5 European Elections timeline 12 April (South West)/ Last date to publish notice of election 15 April (elsewhere) Deadline for submitting nominations 24 April 24 April (South West)/ Deadline for publishing statement of 25 April (elsewhere) persons nominated Purdah restrictions for central 2 May government begin 7 May Last date to register to vote Last date to register for a postal vote 8 May 15 May Last day to register to vote by proxy Polling day 7am to 10pm on 23 May After 10pm on 26 May Election results announced Deadline for submission of political parties’ campaign expenditure 23 August / 23 November 2019 (dependent on amount spent) As indicated above, some dates are different in the South West region owning to Bank Holidays in Gibraltar. Why are the results declared so long after polls close? Results will be declared after 10pm on Sunday 26 May. The reason for the long gap between polls closing and results being announced is because different countries vote on different days over the four day period from 23 to 26 May (with the vast majority voting on the final day), and the results cannot be announced until voting has concluded in all countries.